GlobalCollect Customer Advocacy: Nature & Nurture

Jun 20, 2014 10:00:00 AM

20 June 2014 - For the past three years GlobalCollect has been using the term Customer Advocacy to officially signify its customer-centric approach to providing payment services and knowledge to online merchants. While the term itself may be only be three years old in the organization, to the employees the spirit of Customer Advocacy is entirely familiar and has been an inseparable part of GlobalCollect’s employee mentality for two decades.

On the eve of our 20 year anniversary, we look back at a journey travelled along side some of the world’s biggest and best known brands. This journey may not have always been care-free, but it's certainly been exciting and has revealed the true character of who GlobalCollect is and what the company can do for its clients. We know that what makes us stand out from the rest are our employees, employees who strive to go the extra mile for the client. Employees who take pride in what they can do for the clients and teams that make a difference performing day to day tasks. So the best way to describe GlobalCollect’s “spirit” of Customer Advocacy, is to say that it is in the X-factor that each individual employee brings to the company when carrying out their work for our client. Essentially, without the customer-centric GlobalCollect employee, there is no GlobalCollect Customer Advocacy.

In the spirit of Customer Advocacy, GlobalCollect has several initiatives to underscore its commitment to service excellence and customer focus:

Customer Touch Meetings

An open podium for clients to come and present to all employees at the company headquarters. All of our employees are invited to attend the presentation and to learn more about the merchant’s business so that they can better understand how to deliver value to the client. Clients are encouraged to highlight strongest and weakest spots in the relationship, so that both parties can engage in an open discussion.

Global Customer Advisory Board (GCAB)

GlobalCollect merchants with significant regional, knowledge and industry importance function as advisors and collaboration partners to the management board on strategic matters. The management board listens to our clients when developing their strategic objectives and involves GCAB member merchants in functional workgroups with relevant departments of the organization.

Perspectives/Insights

Global and regional conferences based on best practices, lessons learned and industry’s innovations allow online merchants to openly interact and share knowledge on an open platform facilitated by experienced and expert subject matter employees.

Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Merchants are surveyed by a third party and the results are shared organization-wide. Adjustments are made to correct and compensate for shortcomings while best practices are shared and replicated where possible.

The common thread that is present in all these activities is the fact that clients have expressed how happy they are to work with GlobalCollect’s employees. The employees differentiate themselves by being engaged, responsive, and understanding toward the client.

Maybe GlobalCollect attracts certain types of people who are natural Customer Advocates, maybe it is lucky to stumble upon such employees who are able to fly the Customer Advocacy flag high for 20 years but in any case, I believe that people are good at their core and for the past decade, GlobalCollect has been able to bring out the best in its employees and therefore, in its clients.

Tunga van Vliet is Global Marketing Manager and has been a part of the GlobalCollect team for 6 years.